The Universal Notebook: Hillary Clinton and the end of white male privilege

As I do not want to live in a country presided over by Donald Trump, I have to believe that Hillary Clinton will become the 45th president of the United States and the first the woman to hold that high office.

Not only is she better qualified to serve than anyone in either party who entered the race, as President Obama has said, “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.”

Clinton saw the inner working of the White House up close and personal for eight years, she will have the close advice and counsel of a husband who presided over eight years of peace and prosperity, she served in the United State Senate, and she served as secretary of state.

But the main reason she is the best qualified candidate is that she is tougher and smarter than anyone else in the race. Most men and women subjected to the relentless, spurious attacks that Clinton has endured for decades would be in hiding or in an institution by now.

Clinton may have seemed a little paranoid back in 1998, when she charged that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president,” but history has proven her all too right. Who would have believed that the Republican Party could be hijacked by a cabal of mendacious conservatives who would rather destroy their rivals than do the hard work of governing, who would rather destroy their own party by nominating a buffoon than compromise with a Democrat?

The list of bogus charges against Clinton lodged by do-nothing, know-nothing Republican obstructionists ranges from self-dealing to murder. All bunk. We have now seen how House Republicans function like the National Enquirer, making wild, specious accusations that they can’t back up no matter how much of the taxpayers’ money they waste. The investigative record shows that the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, was not Clinton’s fault, nor was her use of a private email server illegal.

The ginned-up email controversy is a perfect example of what Clinton is up against: the meanness of Republicans and the sexism of the American establishment.

Some Clinton emails may have contained sensitive information that could have been hacked, but the State Department’s own email server definitely was hacked. No computer system is safe to use. Ever. You have to assume that someone, whether it’s the Chinese, NSA, Google or your next-door neighbor, is going to have access to what you write. President George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney all used Republican National Committee email servers for most of their emails, but it was no big deal.

Clinton is everywhere the victim of a cultural double standard. What would be considered discretion in a man looks like deceit in a woman. Being rich is all that Trump has going for himself, but Clinton is vilified for being rich. Sexism has also colored the media coverage of this campaign.

Media bias has helped elevate Trump to viability and held back Hillary. A report by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy found that 84 percent of the media coverage of Clinton has been negative in tone, compared to just 43 percent for Trump and a mere 17 percent for Sen. “St. Bernard” Sanders. And it’s not just the Fox News propaganda machine that has been bashing Clinton. CBS, NBC, CNN, The New York Times and the Washington Post have a lot to answer for; they made Trump legit and Clinton suspect.

Crooked Hillary? Trump’s entire life is one giant fraud, but the media gives him a pass because his blather makes good copy and his supporters don’t care what he says or does. As Trump has said himself, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Why is that? Trumpian tea partiers inhabit an Amerika of their own warped imaginations, in which the economy is in shambles, Muslims and Mexicans are overrunning the place, the U.S. military is weak and ineffective, the government is going to take away their guns, freedom is everywhere under attack, and Slick Willy’s wife is going to be the next president.

Well, at least that last concern is real.

What the 2016 election really comes down to is a woman taking on a man, an inclusive America battering down the last bastion of white male privilege. Trump is the perfect candidate for angry white men and their subservient mates. Clinton is the best choice for the rest of us.

I’m with her.

Freelance journalist Edgar Allen Beem lives in Brunswick. The Universal Notebook is his personal, weekly look at the world around him.

I can’t wait to read the gems of wisdom this column will elicit. Nice work, Edgar!

EABeem

Try out Mr. Zelig for size. I usually get those comments from gun owners fudging their undies over gun control. Be that as it may, Hillary Clinton will be the next POTUS unless there are more fools, racists and jerks in America than responsible citizens.

Charles Martel

At-a-boy. As always, you’re long on personal attacks and short on facts. The Left’s mantra: Trump’s money bad; Hillary’s money good…no different than Poliquin’s money bad; Pingree’s money good.

Stevoe

Hear, hear!

Queenie42

I probably am making a serious blunder here but Margaret Thatcher didn’t rid England of white male privilege. Did she?

Chew H Bird

Just because commissioning the build and implementation of a private email server in a non-secure environment, and utilizing it for high level government communications is apparently not illegal, does not mean that the average 8th grade geek would not have know better… While the list of Mr. Trumps flaws are long and obvious, the lack of judgement Ms. Clinton has demonstrated does not deserve to be rewarded with a Political “promotion” to serve as our president. Instead, it serves as a warning at all technologically literate people that she is incapable of serving as Commander in Chief of the most technologically advanced weaponry in the world. Not the the other apparent major choice is an upgrade (he is not), but Ms. Clinton has actually demonstrated incompetence within her field of endeavor and that alone should be enough to do some real soul searching prior to voting this November.

He means “cuckold.” You get that from angry white men who feel emasculated by powerful women. Donald Trump is on record as blaming his divorce from Ivana on the fact that she worked. He likes his women soft and subservient. Wait till Hillary gets done with his lard butt.

AverageJoe99

Make that ignorant “angry white men.”

EABeem

Done.

Jimmy_John67

Yes that comment is so different then calling female Trump supporters subservient and weak like you did. You are a sexist who doesn’t like it when women have their own thoughts and opinions.

Real cool guy

Hillary Rodham-Clinton; the woman that looked the other way to protect her legacy when her husband sexually assaulted…

Can I say that about your rich white female privileged candidate!? (I notice she dropped Rodham. Not recognizable enough?)

Where is the village idiot from again? New York? No, that was just for an open seat.

Ahh, privilege!

Thank goodness I’m not as dumb as Edgar and actually feel the need to choose between the village idiot and the corporate stooge.

ihavereturned

Vote Libertarian, problem solved.

EABeem

Wasted vote. You might as well vote for Trump.

ihavereturned

Trump and Clinton are both unfit to be President. You support HRC only out of hatred for Trump, news flash they are both “scumbags”. Also the only wasted vote is the one not cast.

EABeem

Hillary Clinton is better prepared for the presidency than anyone who had run for or held the office in my lifetime. The scum all comes from the swamp that is the GOP.

ihavereturned

I hear the samething about Trump from people at work. They tell me I’m wasting my vote too. You folks are cut from the same cloth. You pour gasoline on a fire and then wounder why the house(country) burned down. I’ll stick to my guns. Best of lock to all of us.

Jimmy_John67

Beem denigrates and insults all women who don’t share his political views by calling them subservient and weak. What an incredibly sexist remark from an old, angry white man. The Forecaster should be ashamed to print such a blatantly sexist statement. I don’t support Trump but I certainly don’t condone the generalization of women who do as weak and stupid like Beem does. He should be suspended or fired for that comment.

EABeem

Trump is a sexist pig. No self-respecting woman would support a man like that. In fact, no self-respecting man would either.

Charles Martel

No problem with a woman becoming president if she were like Margaret Thatcher, but not crooked Hillary. The Left can re-write history all they want, but Hillary is the worst of the worst. Too bad no one who reads this column will read “Clinton Cash”, the “Intimidation Game”, the “Corruption Chronicles” or D’Souza’s book or go to the movie, “Hillary’s America”. ( Wait for it: D’Souza went to prison for an illegal campaign contribution.) When Trump wins, I hope all you Leftists will follow the lead of Rosie O’Donnell and leave for your socialist utopian paradise….wherever that may be.

funfundvierzig

The good Senator from Vermont never established a Sanders Family Foundation with his wife to collect tens of $millions in pay-offs and bribes. Amazing how the Hillary-beaming Beem can so facilely overlook the corruption-to-the-core, the brazen fraud-mongering. …funfun..

justanotherfakename

I have taken issue with Hillary Clinton on some points of policy, but the crooked Hillary line from the likes of Trump? It takes one to know one, that orange headed New York gangster with his phony University, debt ridden rip of casinos in which he screwed his investors proves who the crook is. Trump admits he lives large on debt, brags about it, and big unpaid debts until recently were supposedly anathema to the true believer Repubs. I’m not ‘with her,’ but I’m most definitely voting against him, even though it is very difficult to say I’m voting for her after the way my preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders, was treated. Check out Fridays Wikileaks DNC dump.

EABeem

While I’m sure the DNC favored Clinton over Sanders (who, after all, was only a Democrat of convenience), I am equally sure that the DNC was not responsible for Clinton winning the popular vote by close to 4 million, the delegate count by a landslide and more state primaries and caucuses than St. Bernard.

justanotherfakename

I didn’t imply that the DNC did anything other than what is shown that they did, read the Wikileaks dump or ignore it. I won’t ignore it, but also as I did imply, won’t ignore that Trump is worse than Hillary. Sure, Hillary won the popular vote, even though we don’t know who would have won, if independents were allowed to vote in an open primary. I wonder why Dems keep kicking Bernie Sanders if they expect votes from those who honestly believed in his issues, which at least have helped ‘reform’ the Dem platform.

EABeem

You sound like Eliot Cutler. “If the rules had been different, I would have won.”